Read with Tracie Marie Please | Vol. 10

October 26, 2017

Welcome welcome to the 10th volume of Read with Tracie Marie Please! I know it’s been a little while since I have shared a master list of what I have been reading, so this post will be full of the tail end of my summer reading plus some of my fall faves! Let’s get started…

“I know that Facebook offers an idealised version of life, edited and primped to show the world what we want it to see.”

Recommend? It was about time someone wrote a horror story surrounding social media. Although I wasn’t a huge fan of how the author organized the ending and the tying up of all the loose ends in the story, it was still a good read.

“Tragedy is infinitely more interesting than bliss. That’s the allure of self-destruction. Or so I’ve found.”

Recommend? Yes! This book was so spooky and if you’re a fan of Stranger Things you’ll love this book. It really keeps you guessing up until the very end.

“Ideas. I’m possessed by ideas. Ideas that are as old as humanity, maybe older, right? Maybe those ideas were out there just floating around before us, just waiting to be thought up. Maybe we don’t think them, we pluck them out from another dimension or another mind.”

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

5 out of 5 Stars

Recommend? If there is one Halloween-themed book that you’re going to read this week, let it be this one. This book was so creepy and will leave you with so many questions.

“She’s a princess and you’re a jock,” he says. He thrusts his chin toward Bronwyn, then at Nate. “And you’re a brain. And you’re a criminal. You’re all walking teen-movie stereotypes.”

Recommend? Yes! I totally didn’t see the ending to this book coming and it really kept me guessing. I also don’t usually like stories that constantly switch from each character’s point of view, but for this book it totally worked.

Recommend? I loved the setting for this book – where one of the main character’s family owns a used bookstore. This bookstore has a special section where people can write notes in their favorite books; it’s such a romantic and lovely idea.

“I like you,’ I say. ‘I lustful-sun like you, I meteorite like you, you are the f***ing pink Starburst to me.”

Recommend? This book was sweet and a good read, but I didn’t love it as much as I had hoped I would. I think I would have liked a little more romance and not so much awkward beating-around-the-bush with all of the characters.

“The loneliness felt like an infection I couldn’t shake, something hollowing me out from the inside.”

Recommend? Nope. This was a really weird book about a girl falling for her English teacher, and it wasn’t even Lifetime movie drama worthy like I had hoped. It had an anticlimactic ending and I just couldn’t identify with the ugly duckling main character.

“You should find yourself a better path. A God-fearing path. Maybe it would brighten those eyes. “

Recommend? Not really. This book was a bit of a disappointment for me, and what started out as a cool concept got weird. I was in the mood for a spooky mysterious read, but this book was just strange and not at all interesting or spooky.

“It’s a great reminder that you can’t control what happens to you—but you can control how you react to it”.

Recommend? This book was just kind of lame, and I’m sure the author got her inspiration from the romance of Kate and Pippa Middleton but it was kind of like cringe-worthy Gossip Girl but set at a British boarding school.

“The inside of my head is out of control. It is on fire. It is snowing. It is a wild jungle. It is an Arctic wilderness. It is everything that has ever happened and everything that ever will happen, all at once.”

Recommend? I listened to the audiobook of this, and although it was boring at times I really connected with Flora. Flora has no long term memory since she was 10 years old and somehow gets herself to the North Pole and kisses a boy named Drake and actually remembers. This is a sweet heartfelt read that should at least inspire you a little bit to be brave and have courage.

“In a sense we are all like a Flo Rida song: The more time you spend with us, the more you see how special we are. Social scientists refer to this as the Flo Rida Theory of Acquired Likability Through Repetition.”

Recommend? 100x yes! This book was not only hilarious (I actually listened to the audiobook, which was read by Aziz himself) but actually incredibly interesting. Aziz examines the history of dating and compares it across cultures while providing hilarious insight to online dating in our society today.

“The girl lives in a beautiful dollhouse made of stone, I wrote one time in my diary when I was young, my handwriting shaky but sure. But underneath her shining plastic smile, there are only screams.”